U.S. patent application number 11/709222 was filed with the patent office on 2008-08-28 for follow your stars.
This patent application is currently assigned to AMADEUS S.A.S. Invention is credited to Guglielmo Guastalla, Richard Savornin.
Application Number | 20080208643 11/709222 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 39710564 |
Filed Date | 2008-08-28 |
United States Patent
Application |
20080208643 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Guastalla; Guglielmo ; et
al. |
August 28, 2008 |
Follow your stars
Abstract
A system and methods for providing comprehensive travel package
to attend an event out of a series of scheduled events are
disclosed. The system comprises a server engine having means for
gathering all sorts of online travel related information from a
plurality of specialized websites. It includes means for storing
the gathered travel information. A travel time durations and costs
calculator operates from the gathered travel information in order
to dynamically build the comprehensive travel packages. Sets of
comprehensive travel packages are then delivered to a plurality of
client websites in response to the submission by their end-users of
queries to attend events out of series of scheduled events.
End-user queries include home locations along with further
preferences that are used to dynamically build the corresponding
set of comprehensive travel packages. The most appropriate event
date and location is thus selected allowing to deliver the best
travel package for the specified end-user home location.
Preferences include minimizing overall trip elapsed times,
minimizing overall trip costs and excluding some transportation
means. The invention also applies to the organization of
professional meetings and for socializing websites to restrict
selection of people to meet only to those fitting in a cost or time
metric. The invention allows delivering, to end-users of websites
proposing series of events or organizing meetings, the best
comprehensive, i.e., home to home, travel packages for each one of
the proposed events or meetings so that they are aware of all
opportunities and travel consequences (overall durations and costs,
overnight stays etc.) before they book a trip.
Inventors: |
Guastalla; Guglielmo;
(Antibes, FR) ; Savornin; Richard; (Valbonne,
FR) |
Correspondence
Address: |
YOUNG & THOMPSON
209 Madison Street, Suite 500
ALEXANDRIA
VA
22314
US
|
Assignee: |
AMADEUS S.A.S
BIOT
FR
|
Family ID: |
39710564 |
Appl. No.: |
11/709222 |
Filed: |
February 22, 2007 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
705/6 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 50/14 20130101;
G06Q 10/02 20130101; G06Q 10/025 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/6 |
International
Class: |
G01C 21/36 20060101
G01C021/36 |
Claims
1. A system for providing a set of comprehensive travel packages to
attend an event out of a series of scheduled events, the system
comprising: a server engine (400) further comprising: means for
gathering all sorts of online travel related information from a
plurality of specialized websites (410, 420, 430); means for
storing the gathered travel information (402); means for
calculating overall travel time durations and costs (404) in order
to dynamically build the set of comprehensive travel packages from
the gathered travel information and on the basis of a home location
(300); means for delivering to a plurality of client websites (440)
the sets of comprehensive travel packages (310, 320) in response to
the submission by end-users of the client websites of queries to
attend events out of series of scheduled events (470), each said
query including the home location (270) to be used for dynamically
building the corresponding set of comprehensive travel packages;
thereby, selecting event with the most appropriate date and
location allowing to deliver the best travel package for the
specified end-user home location.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the end-user queries include
further end-user preferences.
3. The system of claim 2 wherein the further preferences include
minimizing overall trip elapsed times (312).
4. The system of claim 2 wherein the further preferences include
minimizing overall trip costs (324).
5. The system of claim 2 wherein the further preferences include
excluding some transportation means (272).
6. The system of claim 2 wherein the further preferences include
excluding driving beyond a specified distance or more than a
specified time.
7. The system of claim 1 wherein the means for delivering includes
delivering the sets of comprehensive travel packages to legacy
applications (445).
8. The system of claim 7 wherein the means for gathering travel
related information operates on the basis of events lists (470)
supplied by the plurality of client websites (440) or legacy
applications (445) prior to the handling by the server engine of
queries issued by end-users of the client websites or of the legacy
applications.
9. The system of claim 7 wherein the means for calculating overall
travel time durations and costs further includes determining a list
of one or more nearest airports (540) on the basis of the event
locations supplied in the events lists.
10. The system of claim 9 wherein the server engine (400) further
builds tables of away locations (530) including ground
transportation times to/from the determined one or more nearest
airports (500) to/from the event locations.
11. The system of claim 9 wherein the tables of away locations are
optionally held in the web server (510).
12. The system of claim 1 wherein the end-users (250) of the client
applications (440) may optionally deselect any one(s) (292) of the
proposed series of events (260) prior to requesting (280) from the
server engine (400) the dynamic building of the set of
comprehensive travel packages corresponding to the remaining
selected series of events (290) on the basis of the home location
(270) and of the other optional preferences (272, 274).
13. The system of claim 12 wherein the server engine returns the
dynamic built set of comprehensive travel packages (310, 320)
including a means for booking (330) any one of the offered travel
packages when properly selected (332) by the end-user of the client
application.
14. The system of claim 12 wherein the building of the set of
comprehensive travel packages includes determining a list of one or
more nearest airports on the basis of the home location supplied
with the request (280).
15. The system of claim 9 wherein the building of the set of
comprehensive travel packages further includes taking into
consideration the expected road traffic conditions or forecasted
weather.
16. The system of claim 12 wherein the returned set of
comprehensive travel packages includes the time and cost impacts of
overnight stays necessary to attend events.
17. The system of claims 9 wherein the returned set of
comprehensive travel packages includes the time and cost impacts of
ground transportation to/from event location from/to the nearest
event airport(s), and to/from home from/to the nearest home
airport(s).
18. The system of claim 12 including in client applications a
graphic user interface (GUI) to allow end-users of the client
websites (440) to issue queries for getting comprehensive travel
packages to attend an event out of a series of events (260) offered
by the client websites, comprising: a graphic means to enter home
locations (270), a graphic means to enter further preferences (272,
274), a graphic means to submit the queries (280).
19. The system of claim 1 wherein the series of events is replaced
by a list of selected people to meet in away locations and wherein
people selection is carried out on the basis of a cost or time
metric to restrict selection to only those of the people fitting in
the cost or time metric.
20. The system of claim 19 wherein the returned set of
comprehensive travel packages (310, 320) is replaced by an
evaluation of the minimum, average and maximum times and costs to
meet the people of the selected list.
21. The system of claim 18 wherein the list of people is comprised
of only one people who can possibly be met in a plurality of
locations, times and dates.
22. The system of claim 1 wherein the series of events is replaced
by a scheduled meeting (650) to be attended by an individual and
wherein meeting is held away from his/her home location.
23. The system of claim 22 wherein the away location table (630)
includes a comprehensive list of airports, arrival and departure
times to choose from in order to attend the scheduled meeting.
24. The system of claim 1 wherein the query to attend an event out
of a series of scheduled events is issued for a group of people
coming from a plurality of home locations to attend the same event
and wherein further preferences include: minimizing the group total
cost; minimizing the group total spent time; or minimizing any
combination of time and cost.
25. The system of claim 24 wherein a time or spending limit is set
per group member.
26. The system of claim 1 wherein the comprehensive travel package
server engine is a service part of a GDS (412) service
offering.
27. A method in a server engine (525) for providing a set of
comprehensive travel packages to attend an event out of a series of
scheduled events, comprising: optionally, during an initialization
phase, prior to receiving queries from end-users of client websites
(440), receiving (520) from the client websites events lists
comprising locations, dates and times of scheduled events (515);
gathering (532), on the basis of the events lists, travel related
information from a plurality of specialized websites (545); the
gathering step including the determination of the nearest event
airports (540); creating (530) tables of away locations (500)
corresponding to the events lists and including event airport
access times; after initialization phase is complete, processing
queries issued by the end-users of the client websites to attend
series of scheduled events; said queries including a home location
(550) and, optionally, other preferences; searching for and
building comprehensive travel packages for the queried series of
scheduled events and adapted for the home locations and other
provided preferences; returning to the end users of the client
websites (560) sets of comprehensive travel packages; said
returning step including the further step of sorting the
comprehensive travel packages according to the provided preferences
or to a default sorting method.
28. A method for the end-user of a client web site to attend an
event out of a series of scheduled events, comprising: from the
client website, selecting a preferred series of events (260); said
selecting step including the optional step of deselecting (292)
specific events out of the series of scheduled events; entering a
home location (270) and, optionally, other preferences (272, 274);
requesting trips evaluation (280) for the selected series of events
on the basis of the home location and other preferences; after a
set of comprehensive travel packages is returned to the client
website, selecting an option (332) out of the returned set of
sorted comprehensive travel package (310); requesting booking (330)
of the selected travel option.
29. The method according to claim 27 wherein events consist of
people to meet in away locations.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates generally to the field of
travel reservation in view of attending or participating to a
scheduled event to be chosen from a list of potential locations and
dates. It more particularly relates to the planning of the overall
travel arrangements to put in place in order to achieve a
particular objective; e.g., choosing event (date plus location)
that minimizes the elapsed time to be attended from a home location
or event that minimizes the total travel expenses: flight tickets,
hotel room bookings, car rental fees, etc.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Scheduled events considered by the invention can be of many
kinds. They include, but are not limited to, all sorts of publicly
advertised shows; sport events; e.g., football, soccer or
basketball games, concerts; e.g., pop star or opera singer tours
and so on. The invention addresses as well the problem of having to
meet people in one of various places where they have to show up or
the problem of meeting an individual in the most convenient place
while he/she traveling, such as a speaker delivering a series of
conferences. Hence, a scheduled event in the context of the
invention is, e.g., a particular game or show planned to occur in a
given place at a defined date and time. It can be as well the fact
of meeting people at one of any places where they are due to be on
certain dates.
[0003] Many websites have been put together by various service
providers to sell tickets on-line so that, for example, a football
fan or a music lover can conveniently buy tickets for an event of
his/her choice. The user interface of such websites, most often
accessed through the use of any of the available web browsers or
navigators running on end-user personal computer, is typically made
of windows as shown in FIG. 1. The end-user can thus select a
particular category of events he/she would like to attend (100).
Then, as many as necessary further windows (110) are displayed by
the site in response to the selections performed by the end-user
until this latter is eventually prompted to buy tickets
corresponding to his/her choice (120). After payment is done,
generally on-line with a credit card, or through a third-party
company specialized in on-line payments like "PayPal" with
headquarters in San Jose, Calif., tickets are mailed. Sometimes,
hard tickets are not even produced in which case the end-user of
the site is just given a reference to an electronic ticket or
e-ticket corresponding to the transaction to be authorized,
producing some form of identification, to attend the corresponding
event on the particular day and time selected,
[0004] The above process which is typical of all modern websites
selling services to their remote customers is however only the easy
part of what is to be done to attend or participate to an event.
For example, the football fan who wants to attend a game where
his/her favorite team is playing has not only to decide which date,
time and location are best but must also organize his/her trip to
go there. In which case many specialized popular travel sites like
Opodo, Expedia, Travelocity and, possibly, travel service oriented
sites to book a hotel room or rent a car have to be consulted too.
This can be a time-consuming and frustrating experience especially
if event takes place during peak period or at the occasion of a
special event that attracts a lot of people in a same area.
[0005] Even worse, if things turn really bad, the football fan
mentioned above may end up to have bought a ticket to see his/her
favorite team and discover soon after that it is impossible to find
a hotel room and/or a flight seat cannot be booked at a reasonable
cost for attending the game, if any is left available though.
[0006] Also, the websites of the art always require that a specific
event; i.e., an event scheduled on a certain date at a specified
place, be selected to go further in the process of making a choice.
However, very often, the football fan of the above example may just
be interested in seeing his/her favorite team playing and would be
as well happy to attend any of the games to which team is an
opponent. When this is the case other constraints are becoming much
more important to select an event. For example, a particular
individual may want to minimize the overall time he/she has to
spend to be able to attend an event rather than having to have to
choose a particular event location and date. All occurrences of
event dates, times and locations have then better to be considered
in the choice to be performed. In the example of FIG. 1 end-user of
the site is asked to choose between two locations and dates (130)
without knowing in advance how more convenient it would be for
him/her to be in Jacksonville Fla., on a Monday night or in
Nashville, Tenn. on a Sunday afternoon. This is obviously highly
dependent on parameters like: where individual lives; flight
schedules between closest home place airport and the two above
towns; if there is actually available seats on airplanes; if any of
the event location can be reached by train, by car and so on
including to decide if an hotel room must be booked etc.
[0007] In the light of the above discussion there thus exists a
need for a website server capable of thoroughly processing requests
of end-users to attend any one of a series of events while
considering, optionally, only some (the main contributors) or all
(including, e.g., ground transportation on short distances) of the
travel constraints they are faced with for each of the events.
[0008] It is a specific object of the invention to propose a set of
comprehensive travel packages in order to attend any of a series of
events taking into consideration home locations and, optionally,
other travel preferences specified by the end-users.
[0009] It is also an object of the invention to permit that
selection of a category of events be proposed to the end-users of
website on the basis of a set of away locations and dates i.e.,
without requiring that end-users have first to select a particular
event location and date thus allowing to consider all travel
opportunities for the selected category of events.
[0010] It is another object of the invention that the proposed
travel packages minimize a parameter according to end-user choices
such as the total travel expenses or the overall elapsed times from
home to home.
[0011] Further objects, features and advantages of the present
invention will become apparent to the ones skilled in the art upon
examination of the following description in reference to the
accompanying drawings. It is intended that any additional
advantages be incorporated herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0012] The invention allows providing comprehensive travel package
to attend an event out of a series of scheduled events. The system
comprises a server engine having means for gathering all sorts of
online travel related information from a plurality of specialized
websites. It includes means for storing the gathered travel
information. A travel time durations and costs calculator operates
from the gathered travel information in order to dynamically build
the comprehensive travel packages. Sets of comprehensive travel
packages are then delivered to a plurality of client websites in
response to the submission by their end-users of queries to attend
events out of series of scheduled events. End-user queries include
home locations along with further preferences that are used to
dynamically build the corresponding set of comprehensive travel
packages. The most appropriate event date and location is thus
selected allowing to deliver the best travel package for the
specified end-user home location. Preferences include minimizing
overall trip elapsed times, minimizing overall trip costs and
excluding some transportation means. The invention also applies to
the organization of professional meetings and for socializing
websites to restrict selection of people to meet only to those
fitting in a cost or time metric.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] FIG. 1 shows a typical user interface of a service website
of the prior art.
[0014] FIG. 2 illustrates a website according to the invention
allowing to propose a set of comprehensive travel packages to
attend any of a series of selected events, on the basis of a home
location and other preferences.
[0015] FIG. 3 illustrates, through an example, what is returned to
the end-user of a website making use of the server engine of the
invention in response to a query for attending any of a series of
events.
[0016] FIG. 4 shows a website server engine according to the
invention in its environment.
[0017] FIG. 5 shows the steps of the method of the invention more
particularly adapted to event sites such as sport sites or
alike.
[0018] FIG. 6 more specifically focuses on the case of professional
applications such as the ones to manage meetings with people in
various locations.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0019] The following detailed description of the invention refers
to the accompanying drawings. While the description includes
exemplary embodiments, other embodiments are possible, and changes
may be made to the embodiments described without departing from the
spirit and scope of the invention.
[0020] FIG. 2 illustrates a website connected to a web server
engine (200) according to the invention possibly running on any
computer system ranging from a stand-alone computer (210) to a
large computer center hosting, e.g., all the applications and
databases of a travel service provider.
[0021] The web server engine (200) in cooperation with a client web
application (255), generally running from its own computer
resources (265), is made capable of providing comprehensive travel
packages (CTP) in response to queries issued by an end-user (250)
of a web application (255).
[0022] To this end, the web server or CTP provider (200) is assumed
to have access, through a network or a combination of private and
public networks like the Internet, to a global distribution system
or GDS (220). GDS's are large computer systems put in place by a
few companies of the travel industry such as AMADEUS having
corporate headquarters in Madrid, Spain. GDS's allow real-time
access to airline fares, schedules, and seat availability offering
the capability of booking reservations and generating tickets from
all over the world. Traditional GDS's, that used to focus mainly on
air travel, have widened the scope of travel services they are
offering to all other forms of non-air travel ticketing and
reservation services including e.g., hotel and rental car booking.
Travel services further includes the possibility of calculating
overall travel fares from any imbedded or stand-alone dedicated
software applications.
[0023] The web server is also assumed to have access to any of the
specialized on-line sites aimed at providing maps and driving
directions (230), e.g., such sites like ViaMichelin or Rand McNally
respectively at http://www.viamichelin.com and
http://www.randmcnally.com, so that ground itineraries can be
established and driving distances and driving times estimated.
Moreover, applications allowing to book non transportation related
items like hotel rooms need to be accessible by a web server
according to the invention.
[0024] Other specialized sites, including on-line travel agencies
(OLTA), may optionally have to be consulted too (240). For example,
the web server engine (200) could also have to take into
consideration the forecasted weather or the estimated driving
conditions for the date and time when ground transportation is
preferred (e.g., because distance is short or ground transportation
is less expensive) or mandatory (because there is no other means of
transportation). Since a website server engine according to the
invention (200) is devised to consider the overall travel time
necessary to attend a particular event (from home to home), all the
pieces of a trip itinerary have to be considered. Thus, most often,
ground transportation will have to occur at least on a portion of
the itinerary e.g., from home to an airport with a taxi, a shuttle
bus, etc. The time to reach the airport may be significantly
different depending on the time of the day, the day of the week;
hence, the consultation of specialized websites (240) such as the
ones that monitor road traffic to estimate actual travel times.
Optionally, this information can be conveniently provided by the
client web application (255) under the form of input tables as
further described in FIG. 6.
[0025] In the general case, all sorts of specialized sites may
possibly have to be consulted by the website server engine to
better organize a trip. Although GDS's also provide the possibility
of, for example, booking hotel rooms and renting cars on top of
just delivering airline tickets; all large hotel chains and rental
car and train companies have their own sites that might have to be
interrogated too. The sites to be consulted may also include sites
as diverse as the ones providing ferry schedules between pieces of
land separated by water or the ones giving the access restrictions
to passes of mountain roads or to ski resorts.
[0026] Having thus access to all sorts of means to estimate,
organize and book trips a server engine according to the invention
(200) is armed to process the requests received from client
applications of service providers such as the ones discussed in the
background section i.e., the ones providing tickets to attend
shows, concerts and events of all sorts, so that end-users of such
websites can be proposed a comprehensive list of locations for the
scheduled events they are interested to attend without having to
first select a particular event i.e., a date and a location.
[0027] If end-user (250) is a football fan desiring to attend a
game where his/her favorite team is a participant he/she will have
to access one of the sites from where tickets can be obtained. This
can be the football team home site itself, if providing such a
service, as well as any of the service provider sites specialized
in the selling of tickets. Whichever site is actually used, as
discussed in FIG. 1, after having done the proper selections,
end-user of such a traditional site is eventually proposed a series
of events to attend (260). However, contrary to the prior art
website of FIG. 1 end-user is not forced to select a particular
event among the set of proposed events (260) to go further and
obtain a ticket. With a website making use of the invention
end-user is rather expected to enter at least a home location (270)
after which a trip evaluation can be requested (280) for the set of
events proposed i.e., for the various dates and away locations
listed (260).
[0028] Depending on the application of the invention and web design
choices further options have optionally to be entered by the
end-user prior to requesting trip evaluations to be performed by
the website server engine. For example, the end-user may be offered
the option of minimizing the overall time to spend in order to
attend an event or the option of minimizing the expenses. Also the
end-user may want to exclude some modes of transportation. These
options are selected, for example, through standard combo-boxes as
shown (272, 274). Hence, the invention does not assume a mandatory
list of options. Depending on web client design choices, and the
type of application considered, fewer or more options to choose
from may be offered to the end-user.
[0029] Then, as soon as end-user has clicked the trip evaluation
button (280) all events dates and locations listed (260) are
submitted to the website server engine (200) along with the
end-user entered parameters discussed above including the home
location (270) and other optional parameters like, for example,
preferences of not having to drive more than 100 miles or more than
one hour.
[0030] Choices exercised by the end-user of a client web site (265)
must however be prepared through an initialization phase taking
place between a web server of the invention (200), providing the
comprehensive travel packages, and the client web sites accessed by
the end-users. This aspect of the invention is further discussed in
FIG. 5.
[0031] In an alternate implementation of the invention the
displayed events, resulting of the choices previously performed by
the end-user on what he/she desires to attend, can be optionally
individually deselected (290), prior to requesting trip
evaluations, so that it is possible to manually exclude one or
several of the proposed events if end-user considers some of them
do not fit anyway his/her preferences. In the example of FIG. 2,
the last before one of the proposed event has been deselected (292)
by the end-user who does not want to attend a football game on the
eve of Christmas day.
[0032] FIG. 3 shows, through an example, what is returned to the
end-user of a website making use of the server engine of the
invention (200) to the end-user who has requested to attend any of
the selected events at away locations shown in FIG. 2 (260). The
tables (310, 320) of FIG. 3 assume that home location chosen by
end-user is Raleigh, N.C. (300).
[0033] If the end-user has chosen, for example, to minimize time to
attend one of the events, table (310) is returned. The shortest
trip from home is indeed first picked by the website server engine
since it finds, consulting the databases and sites previously
mentioned, it is actually feasible to attend the corresponding
event within an elapsed time of 9 hours and 34 minutes (312),
flying to and from Charlotte, N.C., the same day, at very
convenient times. This choice appears to be the most expensive
though since airline fares have often little to do with the actual
flying distance. Table (310) assumes that end-user has also chosen
not to drive long distances so that the option of driving from
Raleigh to Charlotte (155 miles away) has not been considered. The
choices of minimizing the overall trip elapsed time and of
excluding some mode of transportation, like excluding driving long
distances, have been performed as explained in FIG. 2 before
submitting the request to the website server engine.
[0034] The second choice returned in table (310) shows that a round
trip to New Jersey (Newark airport), although it is a much more
distant location, can also be done on the same day (Sunday,
December 3) to attend a game in East Rutherford. However, at far
less convenient times since it is necessary to leave very early in
the morning. The overall elapsed time is thus also higher (15:35)
with a better cost though. The other travel options, not shown,
corresponding to the remaining selected events (260) of FIG. 2,
require more time and may even be also more expensive, like
traveling to Nashville, Tenn., because no direct flight exists
between the two towns on that day. Thus, in table (310), events are
listed in increasing order of their trip elapsed time (312) so that
end-user can exercise a choice knowing all consequences in terms of
time and cost.
[0035] If, contrary to what has been assumed above, end-user has
chosen to minimize the travel expenses, table (320) is returned
instead. In which case, the less expensive found option is listed
first. In this example, it corresponds to flying to Washington,
D.C. on Saturday, December 30 because the location of the
corresponding event is in Hyattsville, Md., located just outside of
the District of Columbia. Because event is taken place at night
(8:00 pm), a one-night stay (322) in a nearby hotel is included
too. In spite of this, a much better deal is obtained however at
the expense of a higher elapsed time of 21 hours. In a similar
manner, all the selected events (260) of FIG. 2 are listed in cost
increasing order (324). As a second choice the end-user is then
proposed to fly to Jacksonville, Fla., in which case the cost is
not only slightly higher but the overall elapsed time of the trip
is much increased too.
[0036] From the travel options that are displayed end-user is
expected to eventually exercise a choice and pick a travel package.
In the example of FIG. 3 this is done by highlighting one of the
proposed options (332) after which the book selection button (330)
is clicked to trigger the actual booking.
[0037] For the sake of clarity, the above description of the
invention done through examples, has only considered airline flying
times and ticket costs and overnight stays and hotel costs for
estimating overall travel expenses and trip durations. Depending on
the level of sophistication and available computing resources of
the website server engine (200) shown in FIG. 2, it will be
apparent to those skilled in the art that home to home trip times
and expenses will preferably also include further contributors. In
the examples chosen above to illustrate the invention, the
estimations of the expenses could also include what must be spent
to reach, from airports, the stadiums where football games are
played. Same remark applies when overnight stays have been
scheduled. Transportation expenses between stadiums and airports
such as taxi or car rental bills should be considered too. Also,
home location to home airport must be taken into consideration
since, generally, large town airports are very far from city
centers and their contribution could become significant. Moreover,
specified home location may be such that a choice between several
airports to leave from and return to must be also considered to
propose a best travel package. For example, this is the case if
home location is a town having no airport and if several of the
closest airports are equally susceptible to be used. This aspect of
the invention is also further discussed in FIG. 6. Deciding of
taking into consideration the above extra parameters, and possibly
others, can be optionally selectable in the end-user interface of
FIG. 2. Like the entered home location (270), they will then serve
as inputs to the website server engine (200) to perform trip
estimations when requested to do so. As already discussed, this
latter is assumed to have access to specialized sites, such as the
map application site shown (230), and all sorts of internal or
external databases in order to also estimate the contribution of
ground transportation to the overall expenses and travel time
durations.
[0038] FIG. 4 shows a website server engine (400) according to the
invention in its environment.
[0039] Server engine includes one or several internal databases
(402) aimed at gathering all sorts of travel information from the
various online sources previously discussed; namely: GDS (410),
service travel providers such as the online travel agencies or the
websites of airline or car rental companies (420), websites
specialized in the calculation of ground transportation itineraries
and driving distances and times (430), and so on.
[0040] Server engine (400) also includes a cost and travel time
duration calculation engine (404) to estimate the overall trip
elapsed time and costs, from home to home, to attend an event. To
this end, it uses the information gathered in the internal
database(s) (402) and can also issue specific queries to the online
sources of travel to find any information needed to complete the
calculation of a trip elapsed time and determine costs. Server
engine further includes any kind of tools to optimize calculations
so as to provide a reliable service to the web client
applications.
[0041] Website server engine (400) can thus be used simultaneously
by numerous end-users of all sorts of client web applications (440)
running from their own computerized resources (450). This can be,
for example, the website of a football team (460) holding the
schedules and dates of the games to which team is participating and
from where they can be displayed on the browser of site end-users.
The invention thus assumes that the corresponding table of events
(i.e., the set of games to which team participates in a season or
during a defined period possibly selected by the end-users) can be
transmitted (470) to the server engine (400) so that a
comprehensive set of travel packages, best suited to attend the
submitted events, can be calculated and returned to the end-users
of the football team website as discussed in FIG. 3.
[0042] Server engine (400) can serve as well legacy software
applications (445) especially those that would be still used e.g.,
by large travel organizations or travel agencies running pre-web
applications from mainframes.
[0043] Also, in an alternate implementation of the invention, the
website server engine (400) is just part of the services offered by
a GDS (412) so that the specialized websites (450) or the legacy
applications (445) can address GDS directly to get the
corresponding services.
[0044] FIG. 5 shows the steps of the method of the invention.
[0045] Prior to the handling of the end-user requests submitted
through a web page (505) displayed by a client web server (510) of
a CTP provider engine according to the invention (525) an
initialization phase (520) may optionally have been completed
first. This optional step, that allows expediting the processing of
end-user requests, includes the submission by the web server (510)
of the database of events to be considered (515), i.e., all events
that are possibly proposed to the end-users of a particular web
server application. In the previous example of FIG. 2, illustrated
with a football site, this represents, for example, the set of
football games to be considered during a season and that are
offered to selling by the owner of the web site.
[0046] Alternatively, the away locations table (530), shown to be
held by CTP provider (525) in FIG. 5, can be as well housed by web
server itself (510).
[0047] On the basis of the locations and dates of the submitted
events, CTP provider engine (525) can thus determined a list of
airports to be considered (540). As discussed previously, this is
achieved by consulting all necessary specialized web sites, and
notably a GDS (535). Tables of away locations (500) corresponding
to the submitted list of events can thus be established and held in
a database (530) to later handle all the end-user requests. Tables
include the events to be considered (dates and locations) along
with the time necessary to reach event locations from the selected
airports through ground transportation means. To this end, all
necessary specialized web sites need to be consulted (532) too.
Typically, this includes the mapping application sites previously
mentioned in order to get driving distances.
[0048] After the initialization has completed web server is then
able to handle end-user requests. On the basis of event lists
displayed by the web server application in web page, such as the
one (260) in example of FIG. 2, end-user enters a home location
(550) and, optionally, other preferences as previously discussed.
This triggers, on the basis of the specified home location, the
query for the best event locations and the search of the
corresponding travel packages that minimize time or cost depending
on what end-user has selected.
[0049] The best travel packages are then returned and sorted before
being displayed to the end-user (560), as shown in example of FIG.
3, so that he/she can select a travel option (332) and perform the
corresponding booking (330).
[0050] Although the invention has been mainly illustrated, up to
this point, through the selection of a sport event it must be clear
that it is not limited to this particular example and that its
field of applications is wider and much more general.
[0051] For example, in the recent years there has been an
exponential growth in the number of sites enabling socializing
networks, i.e., sites where people with common interests get in
contact through the Internet. Some of these websites provide to
their users/subscribers search tools enabling them to restrict
their contacts to people possessing certain characteristics by
specifying the appropriate search criteria. While, for some of
these websites, socializing intends to remain a pure virtual
activity (i.e., destined to happen exclusively on the net) others
enable actual socialization (e.g., dating sites) hence, introducing
a distinction between socializing between persons and socializing
around a place or subject of common interest (e.g., websites
providing information about events, historical sites, etc.). When
real socializing (i.e., getting together) is considered, a website
usually also provides means to restrict the search on the basis of
geographic criteria. A criterion is then typically the
country/state/region where people live while another one is the
mileage distance to meet them. In which case such a site can better
take advantage of the invention to focus the search on the user and
to permit that results be ordered or ranked according to the used
criteria. Like in FIG. 2, requests are done in the form of a home
location, a list of allowed means of transport and a list of away
locations. Events are, in this application of the invention, people
to meet possibly associated to a date as shown in the example table
hereafter:
TABLE-US-00001 Home location: New-York, NY Away locations Dates
Patricia lives in Raleigh, NC Available Wednesday Sept. 19 at 8:00
pm Valerie lives in Washington, Available Sunday Sept. 30 at 4:00
pm DC
[0052] If the date column is provided, as with the previous
football example in FIG. 2, a system according the invention takes
into account the arrival date and time to calculate the overall
travel time durations and costs.
[0053] Also, in the case of socializing websites, the cost or times
metrics used by the invention to determine a better location to
attend an event can be used for a priori filtering of the people to
meet from a specified home location so that only those that can
possibly be met in a given span of time or distance or for a travel
cost not exceeding a preset value, are indeed only considered and
proposed to the end-user of the website. Thus, in this application
of the invention, the above table may not include any meeting date
and is rather used first to filter the people to meet. Hence, the
end-user of the socializing website can be certain he/she offered
to meet only people that match with his/her preferences.
Preferences are set by the end-user himself/herself e.g., in a
profile when registration to the socializing website is done. While
the actual meeting dates are not yet known filtering is carried out
on the basis of minimum, average and maximum values for the chosen
metric; e.g., the maximum time or maximum cost to spend to meet
people. When actual meeting dates are known the invention can then
proceed as described in previous figures considering people to
meet, in various locations and dates, as series of events according
to the definition used by the invention.
[0054] The different databases necessary to compute costs and
travel time durations between the home location and all the
different away locations are queried as also depicted in FIG. 2.
Each travel time duration is generally composed of one ore more
travel segments, and the method stores the list of the different
travel segments together with the corresponding means of
transportation and travel times. These travel time durations are
based on schedules and actual availability when applicable.
[0055] Then, the system would return, as a default display option,
the list of away locations in order of increasing travel times or
increasing costs, examples of which are shown in FIG. 3. A more
sophisticated display of the results would include graphics, e.g.,
plotting: [0056] Along the X axis: travel times through the main
means of transportation; [0057] Along the Y axis: residual travel
times; [0058] A different symbol (or color) for the different means
of transportation (e.g.: a cross if traveling by train, a circle if
traveling by plane); [0059] A label with the name of the away
location;
[0060] Other applications of the invention are in the field of
business applications; especially for meetings management. The
invention is indeed able to manage complex situations as sketched
in FIG. 6 through the particular example of a business people
having to attend a meeting in a place different from his/her home
location. Hence, in a similar manner as previously discussed,
inputs are provided by the end-user of a specialized professional
web server (610), i.e., the business people his/herself or any one
acting on his/her behalf such as a secretary or a travel agency
agent. Professional web server is here, for example, a corporate
application used by the employees of a large company to organize
their meetings, a travel organization business application or any
specialized site offering this service to its registered users.
[0061] Inputs (650) consists in this example, as previously, of the
home (or business) location and also includes the meeting place and
meeting schedule preferably under the form of an input table, as
shown (620), in which meeting must take place in city M from 2:00
to 5:00 pm. This example used to illustrate the professional
application of the invention specifically assumes that the meeting
place is in a city with no large airport, or no airport at all, so
that the CTP provider engine (625) is bound to consider also the
closest surrounding airports (640) to determine the best travel
solutions to attend the meeting. Hence, if to reach the city where
meeting takes place (621) there are very few or no possible flights
from the home location, other surrounding important airports i.e.:
cities A1, A2 and A3 (622) in this example, are included in the
away locations table previously described (630) so that CTP
provider engine can thoroughly review all associated constraints
and advantages, including: driving distances, frequency of
connections to other important airports, schedule of flights that
would avoid to stay overnight to attend meeting or to depart too
early from the home location. In a similar manner as with
previously described application of the invention, a sorted list of
options is eventually provided to the end-user (660) after the
relevant specialized web sites and GDS have been consulted (635,
645). From the sorted list of options a selection can be performed
and trip booking done thus greatly simplifying the task of a
business people to find, from a home or business location, the
shortest or cheapest possible trip to attend a meeting.
[0062] In this application of the invention it is worth noting here
that, contrary to what is shown in FIG. 5, no optional
initialization step can possibly be carried out since meeting in
this case is a one-time event, set by a professional, not part of a
published series of events as e.g., the sport events used to
illustrate the invention in previous figures.
[0063] Finally, the above process can be applied as well to a group
of people. Being given a list of N people from L different
locations and a list of P events in which they are interested
(i.e., a list of destination/time couples), the invention can
select the best single event that should be attended by the whole
group to minimize one of the following metrics: [0064] the group
total cost [0065] the total time spent by all group members [0066]
any combination of both above metrics [0067] with or without
allowed values set; e.g.: requesting that no more than 1000$ be
spent per each group member.
* * * * *
References